“If I have a young couple come in and they want to get a tattoo of each other’s name, I will
talk to them first,” said the star of the TLC series
NY Ink and
America’s Worst Tattoos.

“It would be different if they’ve been together 20 years. I’m not going to let someone get a
tattoo they’re going to regret.”

New seasons of both shows premiered last month on TLC.

Most of the time, Massacre is found at the Wooster Street Social Club, in the SoHo neighborhood
of Manhattan — the setting for
NY Ink. There, she shows off the artistic skills she has cultivated since she was old
enough to hold a pencil.

On
America’s Worst Tattoos, she converts unwanted tattoos into something more acceptable to
clients.

“That’s really 10 times harder than creating a new tattoo because some tattoos are hard to
cover,” Massacre said. “And I don’t get to be as creative as when I’m coming up with my own
designs.”

Because she loves her job, she is willing to say no.

She wants tattoo experiences to be positive. She won’t tattoo anyone who has been drinking, she
said, because alcohol thins the blood and makes her work and a customer’s healing more
difficult.

She also tries to talk young people out of getting tattoos on the face, neck or hands. In her
business, these are known as “job stoppers.”

“There’s a trend right now for someone who’s just turned 18 to get a tattoo on their face, neck
or hands,” Massacre said. “That means you will never get a normal job.

“I will interview them and ask them where they see themselves in 10 years.”

If you want to see some really bad tattoos, though, look at the legs of tattoo artists, she
said. Many use their legs for practice while going through an apprenticeship, and the work
generally isn’t good. Her first tattoo wasn’t even completed, and Massacre had to color it
herself.

Massacre — a name she picked as a jab at the overly violent fans of hard-core rock shows — grew
up with a passion for all forms of art. She became so good with a calligraphic pen that, in high
school, she made money doing wedding invitations.

Her interest in tattooing sparked at 14, but she didn’t have the $4,000 needed to pay for the
apprenticeship. Four years passed before she got her first job and six months more before she got
her first tattoo — an anime female cheetah on her leg.

Massacre estimates that she has 25 tattoos. Many of them can be seen in her work as an
alternative model, appearing on the covers of
Tattooist,
Savage,
Ink and
Skin Art.

She also finds time to pursue her passion for video games and animal rights.

It’s important to be as busy as possible right now, she said, laughing, because people in her
line of work don’t tend to have 401(k) packages or health care.